DIY Over-Fridge Wine Rack

I built me a wine rack, yall!

Our kitchen has been undergoing alot of character building lately. What was an outdated, blank-slate kitchen with no built-ins or "character nooks", is now becoming a more customized and functional space. You can remind yourself how our kitchen started here and here and here. 

The mini-cabinets everyone has over the refrigerator were never used for much in our house. 

Before:

I decided to create a built-in wine rack to utilize and showcase the space, like this picture shows.

 source

I loved the look of the X cube wine racks, like this one from Pottery Barn.

I considered buying a ready-made wine rack with the correct dimensions and placing it inside. 

I couldn't let myself do that. It's too easy.

Duh.

I couldn't even buy wood for the slats at Lowes or Home Depot. So this is what I did...

I first removed the doors, then the random assortment of screws, pictures, magnets, and a wedding invitation I had misplaced before rsvp-ing...oops.

 

I sawed off the center vertical piece of wood then painted the inside to match the cabinets. 

I found 2 wood crates at Jo Anns ($12 each) that when placed side by side were the perfect length to fill the cabinet.

 

 I painted both crates the same color.

I bought 2 pieces of scrap shelving from ReStore for $2 each and cut my pieces to create the "X" slats to separate. 

 

For each crate, I needed one 19.5"x9.25" piece.

 

And two 9.25"x9.25" square pieces.

 I placed the 3 wood pieces inside to insure that they fit, then used mending plates to connect the 2 smaller pieces. 

 

I screwed the mending plate into the front facing side, bracing the two small pieces together like a bridge over the long piece.

 

Then, I slid it out...

 

 and flipped those pieces so that the mending plate was now at the back of the crate. 

 

I placed the large piece in between, and installed the second mending plate on the front facing side. This way, the 2 separate pieces were connected at the front and the back.

 

 I painted everything and waited so impatiently for it to dry.

  

I ended up needing to saw about 1/8th of an inch from the inside edge of the open cabinet to have just enough room to slide the crates inside.  It just took a minute.

And with that, it was done!

 I propped my wine painting from my old apartment on a brick over the cabinet, with a wine bottle, wine jug, and wine glass.

 

Now I most certainly need more than 6 bottles of wine. 

I will need to buy some more.

Darn.

Two, $12 crates + $4 in scrap shelving + paint and mending plates on hand = $28 wine rack. 

But having the wine so accessible at my fingertips...

Priceless.
OR dangerous.

We'll see... 

Be Merry!

Katie

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